Country Office 506696 Oxam Novib Vietnam

General

CO implementer The project aims to improve small farmers# participation in land governance through piloting a community-based monitoring mechanism that will be adopted into subsequent national policy documents. This mechanism will build on Oxfam and Landa#s experience in community consultation on the Land Law and engagement in direct community projects, with the aim to increase domestic support for implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). The overall goal of this project is to secure land rights of small-scale farmers and ethnic minority communities through evidence-based advocacy towards a more transparent and inclusive land governancelegal framework, with meaningful participation of the citizens in to the processes in order to help reduction of land use related conflicts in Vietnam. This project contributes to Vietnamese Government priorities by operationalising Article 199 of the 2013 Land Law on a pilot basis in three provinces, documenting and disseminating results, and linking to development of policies and guidelines to implement citizen monitoring provisions of the Land Law nationwide. To achieve this, Oxfam and Landa will engage with MONRE/GDLA and other government agenciesimmediately from the start of the project. Successful implementation of the action will contribute to the overall goal of MRLG of securing the rights to land access of small holding farmers. This project will be primarily implemented in regions inhabited by ethnic minority groups. The engagement of the small farmers at grassroots level throughout project implementation will be facilitated through various capacity building and awareness raising activities. Furthermore, they will not only be consulted on the suitability andappropriateness of the guidelines on citizens monitoring of land governance, but also engage directly in certain stages of monitoring. This continuing process of engagement will form a solid foundation for proactive action of smallholder farmers in claiming theirrights. The project#s ultimate beneficiaries are small-scale farmers (particularly ethnic minorities and women) who obtain and preserve access to land through different land re-allocation, pro-poor participatory land planning, and other progressive policies. The minimum target in this Innovation Fund project will be that 300 farmers in each of three provinces, or 900 farmers in all, of which at least 50% are ethnic minorities and50% women will actively engaged in monitoring different processes of land governance